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A Poor Start

Jill and I got up at 5:15 this morning to get everything packed for our trip to Seattle. We got everything in the car and then got the girls loaded up and were out the gate by 6:00 to make the 6:15 ferry. All was going well until we got to the gas station in Campbell River, and I reached for my wallet to fill up. When my hand encountered nothing in my pocket, I realized, with a certain sinking sensation, that my wallet was still sitting on a shelf in the bedroom.

Our time line was already pretty tight, we had to be in Sidney to catch a ferry by 11:35, or we’d lose our reservation for the 12:05 sailing, the only one of the day. We also had to make two stops; one to drop off wine, and one to pick up parts for the winery, neither of which we could eschew.

Fortunately, Tak was able to locate my wallet and get it on the next ferry, so we were only an hour behind schedule. After expressing just how disappointed she was with my performance, Jill gave me the silent treatment until Nanaimo, and then she fell asleep. I pushed the speed limits as much as I dared (no Mr. Police officer, no laws were broken, honest!) and we made it to our first stop in Victoria by 10:40, despite a 15 minute delay caused by a commercial vehicle safety check that had the Trans Canada backed up for kilometers (and most of the commercial vehicles turning off before they got to the check, just trying to make their deliveries, very effective strategy, boys.) The second stop was quite close, and we were on our way to the ferry by 11. It was a 32 minute drive, according to google, and we made it by the 11:30 deadline, though there wasn’t much time to spare. Turned out the ferry wasn’t full anyway, but we didn’t know that until we got there.

A pleasant 3 hour ferry ride through the San Juan Islands allowed us to unwind a bit from the frantic start to the day.

Who’s driving this thing?!?

Traffic got a wee bit snarly as we got closer to Seattle, and the last kilometer was horrific. It was the height of rush-hour just as we hit downtown. Not great planning, but with only one sailing, what other option did we have? I ended up doing a couple circles in downtown as we tried to figure out how wind up on the correct side of the street at our hotel. We passed it three times before we gave up, found a nearby parkade and walked a block. Fortunately the children cooperated and were nice and quiet for the whole trip. Ru-chan actually slept all the way to Victoria, and they both had naps until we were almost to the hotel.

After settling in to our room, we went for a walk, looking for a place for dinner. I ended up buying a Utilikilt (www.utilikilts.com) I think it will be a very pleasant garment for working in the vineyard and around the farm this summer. We’ll see how Tak feels about it when I help put the roof on his shed later this week.

Well ventilated

Just across the street, there was a little Italian resaurant and we had a very pleasant meal there, topped off by some excellent tiramisu for dessert.